In an interview which aired Friday night on ABC’s 20/20, Madonna finally addressed the controversy surrounding Lady Gaga‘s “Born This Way,” which many people have called blatant plagiarism of the Material Girl’s 1989 hit “Express Yourself.”
In the interview, Madonna calls Gaga “a very talented artist.”
“I certainly think she references me a lot in her work,” she tells 20/20’s Cynthia McFadden. “And sometimes I think it’s amusing and flattering and well done. a statement about taking something that was in the zeitgeist, you know, 20 years ago and turning it inside out and reinterpreting it.”
“There’s a lot of ways to look at it. I can’t really be annoyed by it…because, obviously, I’ve influenced her.”
“When I heard it on the radio, I said that sounds very familiar,” Madonna says about Gaga’s Born This Way. “It feels…reductive,” she continues.
“Is that good?” McFadden asks about her choice of the word “reductive.”
“Look it up,” Madonna coyly replies.
So we did.
reductive:
– adjective
1. of, pertaining to, characterized by, or producing reduction or abridgment: an urgent need for reductive measures.
2. of or pertaining to change from one form to another.
3. of, pertaining to, or employing reductionism; reductionistic.reduction:
— noun
1.the act or process or an instance of reducing
2.the state or condition of being reduced
3.the amount by which something is reduced
4.a form of an original resulting from a reducing process, such as a copy on a smaller scale
5.a simplified form, such as an orchestral score arranged for piano
So, make of that information what you will.
Watch excerpts from 20/20’s ‘Madonna Unplugged’ interview and a video comparison of “Born This Way” and “Express Yourself” below.